more on Everything Bad is Good for You

If everything "bad" is indeed good for you, what does this mean for the world of Libraries and/or Educational organizations?

I think this just means that libraries and other educational institutions will have to learn to adapt and embrace new things, just as they have done for decades. There was a time when people felt that novels weren't appropriate materials for libraries, but in this day and age no one even questions whether or not the public library will have the new James Patterson or Nora Roberts. At this point, we say "as long as they're reading."

So it will go with gaming. We'll say "at least they're in the library" and "at least they're learning something" (if, indeed, everything bad is good for you and they really are learning something). We already offer magazines that embrace pop culture like US Weekly, Electronic Gaming Monthly, and Lucky, and we circulate DVDs and VHS and we have computers available that people use to keep up with their Facebook pages. Gaming is just the next step in library adaptation and staying relevant to users.

After all, I don't think it's really for libraries or librarians to make value judgments, but rather to provide the information resources that people want (and in the "everything bad is good" context, I think we can call video games "information resources"), just as we would when checking out a book we find personally distasteful.

Second Life

I felt more comfortable in Second Life after going through the exercises on Orientation Island, but overall, it wasn't my thing. I guess I just didn't get the point. For me, it wasn't useful or entertaining. I guess if that's where the patrons are, I should get used to it, but...it's just an uncomfortable medium for me. I'd even prefer a video chat where people could see actual-me, rather than avatar-me.

As we've been reading in the Farkas book and elsewhere, a lot of people use these online social tools primarily to interact with people they already know. I'm totally one of those people and so spent a lot of my time in Second Life feeling concerned that a stranger might try to interact with me and that I wouldn't know what to say or do. For one thing, don't these things always have complicated social rules and their own vocabulary and whatnot?

SCILS 598 do's and don't's

I think the only change I'd like to see in this class might be difficult to implement due to the nature of the course. I feel like a major aim of social software use in libraries is collaboration and the whole, y'know, social aspect, so I would've liked more synchronous chats or collaborative projects like the week we did the wiki. However, I realize that my classmates and I are spread around the country, living in different time zones, and that many of us work full-time and that is part of the reasoning for our online course participation. These factors, and others, make synchronous and collaborative efforts difficult.

As for my general review of the course, I liked it. I really feel like I learned a lot and I'm much more confident with wikis and with the sound of my own voice in recordings, in particular! I had a lot of fun (I think the video week was my favorite!) and I've also already started implementing some of these tools into my work life. I did really struggle with keeping up with the constantly growing number of tools we were using each week, though. At this point, I'm checking the three e-mail accounts we created, Facebook, Bloglines, MySpace, Twitter, and I don't even know what else...it's very difficult to manage.

Slingo!

Here's a screencast of me playing Slingo! Check Slingo! out at Yahoo! Games.

Is pop culture making us dumb?

From what you've read (read first), is Popular culture (games, tv, film) just a method to "sophisticatedly deliver stupidity" (Steve paraphrasing George Will)?

I can only assume that Steve is paraphrasing this George Will. If that is the case, then I find Will's stance quite interesting as he is a consumer of one of American society's oldest and most profitable forms of popular culture: sports.

Now, before I continue with this line of thought, let me give the disclaimer that I, too, am a huge sports fan. Like Will, I am especially fond of baseball and am actually sharing my desk with a bobblehead figure of the Red Sox announcers on the New England Sports Network right this moment and just counted over 30 sports memorabilia items in my office.

And yet, I can't help but think that if there ever was a field of popular culture that was dumbing us down and generally being a negative influence, it would be athletics. First on the list of negative effects of our love for sports: the fact that athletes make millions of dollars a year and teachers don't even bring in six figures. Second is the fact that athletes behave just as badly as any other type of celebrity and are just as easily influencing fans to behave badly (hello, baseball steroids scandal; professional athletes that get slapped on the wrist for drunk driving; and men who brag about having slept with thousands of women). And of course, the aspect of athletics that may actually be making us dumber as a society: the tradition of passing athletes in their academics that starts in middle school and continues right through college.

Anyway, I'm with Johnson that popular culture may actually be making consumers smarter in some ways and I'll go back to the example of baseball. Baseball is a game that is easy to enjoy even if you know very little about it, but it is actually a very complex game. Understanding baseball to a point that you can comprehend strategy and statistics is actually quite difficult. Baseball can teach a person a lot about numbers just as television can teach him or her about interpersonal relationships in Johnson's example.

To Wii, or Not to Wii

(Sorry about the title, I just couldn't help myself!)

I work in a medium-sized public library (though definitely on the smaller end of that range). We were fortunate to win a Wii for our library at a CTLS event, but if we were planning to purchase a video game console my selection criteria would include: price, ease of use and set-up, availability and price of games and accessories, and user interest.

Researching the first three would be pretty easy. There are several Web sites I could use for price comparisons and video game reviews, some of which were cited on the SCILS 598 wiki. There are several methods I might use to determine which console would be most desirable to our patrons. First and foremost would be asking the users through surveys available in the library, on the Web site, and in local electronics stores and other places where gamers might be likely to see them. Another method would be to ask local electronics stores and rental stores like Blockbuster which games and consoles are most popular with their customers.

My choice would be the Wii and for my reasons, look no further than the Library Garden post on gaming consoles. It's the best bang for the buck, essentially.

And, you can play Rock Band and Guitar Hero on it.

Screencasting 101

Here are the two most important things I've learned about screencasting this semester:

• Rehearse your screencast prior to recording. A few dry runs will help you to find any snags such as dead links, changed pages, etc. and will make you more comfortable with the topic and the idea of speaking aloud into "thin air."
• KEEP GOING even if you make a mistake. If you stop and start all over every time you say "um" or make some other minor mistake, you'll never get through it.

Facebook Photo Albums

Creating a photo album in Facebook.

to Ning or not to Ning

I didn't really know much about Ning until today. In fact, I only even knew it existed because someone mentioned the SCILS Ning on the wiki or Twitter or somewhere.

After poking around a little and watching LT's very informative screencast, I see that its major attraction to users is that each individual Ning is more exclusive than Facebook or MySpace so users feel more secure using it in terms of privacy (whether they are or not, I'm not sure). It also seems that some people who resist using Facebook or MySpace are more compelled to use a Ning because of its specific purpose. Rather than just signing up and seeing who you see, you join a specific group with a particular end in mind, to learn more about bicycle repair or to connect with other chihuahua lovers, for example.

However, it seems to me, that with the exception of the "sense of security," Ning's aims could also be achieved with a Facebook group (although, again, we've touched on something I don't know that much about; despite belonging to several, I primarily just lurk).

reflections on the boyd articles

Wow, the two boyd articles assigned this week really gave me a lot of food for thought. My initial reaction to the question of what librarians should take away from these articles was, "uh, every word." After reflecting for a while, I think I was able to distill a few tips, pointers, and things to think about from the articles.

• The first article mentioned that many users of SNS's are daily users. Libraries that create profiles on social networking sites need to be mindful of this and update their content often to stay fresh, relevant, and interesting.
• Both articles touch on the fact that online networks often reflect existing offline networks. The first also mentions that SNS's are more often used to connect friends-of-friends than strangers. For this reason, it might be in the library's best interest to let volunteers or regular patrons know about your online presence first so that they will "friend" the library (thus reflecting an offline relationship) and their friends will see (thus introducing friends-of-friends).
• Both articles discuss the importance of image in social networks, how users can "type themselves into being," etc. The library needs to be conscious of the image it projects in its profile.
• In the first article, the importance of comments (on walls, etc.) is brought up. Discourse is an important aspect of social networking. Librarians need to consider whether they want to just "push" information on a profile page or if they also want to engage in conversation by replying to comments left by patrons (the method I might suggest based on the literature).
• Finally, when choosing an SNS for the library and creating a profile, as with any other library programming, librarians need to consider their user population.
  

Sticky Wicket

I think there are three big reasons that social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace are such "sticky" Web sites (or, as I like to say, such "timesucks").

The primary reason these sites take up so much time is that they are constantly changing. Another site I visit often is my hometown newspaper, but I know that it will update once a day unless something really exceptional happens, so...I check it once a day. On the other hand, something new is posted on Facebook every second. Every time you go back to the site, there will be something new to look at, you can count on it.

The second reason is the sheer number of links and information on a site like Facebook. You go online, check your profile, and the next thing you know, through a series of links you've followed through from your home page, you're looking at pictures of people you went to high school with but haven't spoken to in ten years and an hour of your life is gone. There's just so much to get sucked into.

Finally, I think people get sucked into social networking sites is the voyeuristic aspect of them. You just have to know what Jane ate for lunch or where Jim is traveling on business this week. It's kind of weird, when you think about it, how much blogs and social networking sites and the like have brought the mundane details of our lives out into the limelight and somehow people actually want to know those details.

My Foray into Screencasting

with the very fun-ly named Jing!

This screencast is a brief introduction to searching the Pflugerville Community Library's online catalog.

PCL Catalog How-to

You've heard of the Oscars...

Now, check out the Beccas for best educational video and best entertaining video from a SCILS 598 classmate.

Best Educational Video: Did You Know? from SL



I chose this one because it's a cause that's really important to me, too, and I'm glad SL is getting the word out about dogs in need of homes.

Best Entertaining Video: LaserBugs from JS



I chose this one because it made me laugh out loud. It's hard to beat that!

I also have to give an honorable mention to MD. I loved the editing in her videos that give the scrapbook and film reel effects to them.

Educational Video

Here's a short video on how to make hot chocolate. You have to watch all the way to the end to "get" the music! Enjoy!


Click to play

Original video here.

Entertainment Video

Here's a quick video of photos from several Rustic Overtones shows over the course of two weekends in August 2007 taken with my cousin's cell phone and set to a fun song of theirs, "Check."




Original video here.

What Our Photos Say About Us

Looking at our class flickr pages (here and here) it's easy to recognize a few patterns and see what we have in common. Our differences are harder to determine from these images, though.

Similarities

• Looks like we've got a lot of animal lovers!
  
• A lot of the photos are of pieces of art or are artistic themselves, so it seems we have a general appreciation for art and design.
• I see pictures of vacation destinations--we're a group of globetrotters (or, maybe we just all really need a vacation!).
• Computers feature very prominently in our home, school, and work lives.
• But many of us also included pictures of books. Who says print is dead?
  

Differences

• We're spread out geographically.
• We work in different types of libraries.

Education vs. Entertainment

Do education videos stand a chance against entertainment videos?

Of course they do!

First of all, who says the two have to be mutually exclusive? In fact, don't many people prefer their educational experiences to have an entertaining element?

Secondly, as we've discussed time and time again in this course, there are many different types of learners, including visual ones. In Social Software in Libraries, Farkas references dual coding theory, which states that learning is best accomplished through a combination of visual and auditory channels. (206) For these reasons, I think educational videos on the web will continue to be very popular.

I think one of the major benefits of 2.0 technologies and of technology in general is that in our day and age the line between education and entertainment isn't as solid as it once was. The other day I used an online video to learn how to draw a goat (don't ask). This may not be "educational" in the same way our grandparents might conceive of education, but I did learn something! Education has left the classroom and can be found anywhere and everywhere. When I did the 23 Things program with CTLS one of the first topics was lifelong learning. While lifelong learning is nothing new, the internet and things like YouTube make self-directed learning much easier.

Blogging vs. Podcasting

I'm much more a visual learner than an audial learner, so my preference is for blogging. Blogging is also much more in line with my communication style because I can take time to deliberate over each thought and can go back and edit easily and often. Another reason I prefer blogs to podcasts is that, with blogs, I can control the rate at which I consume information. I can read much faster than most people speak in podcasts; I can also more easily choose to scan parts or to skip some parts altogether with text. Finally, I just don't have much of an attention span for listening to podcasts; when I listen to something, I have to also be doing something else-- cleaning, driving, etc.--whereas with text I can easily focus on just reading.

Still, podcasting does have its "pros." Being able to speak or to listen often gives nuance to language that is hard to capture textually. Also, the very fact I mentioned above, that I like to do other things while listening, is great for learners on-the-go.

A little story about Shakes and Nikki...

Here's a little story about how our cats, Shakes and Nikki, came to live with my fiance and I and about how Shakes got her name...

Librarians as Tastemakers

Like others, I suspect that Anderson addresses "New Producers, New Markets, and New Tastemakers" in his book, since I can't find those concepts referenced in the original Wired articles. Still, while I can't address Andersons constructs specifically, I do have an idea of librarians as tastemakers and market-creators that I can address here.

Obviously, librarians have the power to be tastemakers based on the books they recommend; the materials they display prominently in the library, and simply by collecting certain items and not others. I think librarians factor specifically in creating markets in the "long tail," though because they provide free access to things that patrons might never try if they had to pay for them. For example, you might be hesitant to buy a CD by an artist you've never heard of or even one that's been recommended to you but that you've never heard a song by, but you might go ahead and pick up a CD by an unkown artist from the library because the worst that can happen is that you hate it and you bring back the CD early. No big deal, nothing lost.

I also notice that my library creates a market for DVDs that would probably be considered in the "long tail" for the very reason that they are in the "long tail." It's harder to find foreign films, documentaries, and PBS specials at Blockbuster, so those things check out like crazy at the library. I know I personally often use the library for long tail items that I have a hard time finding through retailers like obscure or out of print books; sometimes I have to resort to ILL, but I'll still do it to get that last book in a series or whatever.

My Educational Experience

I chose to include four thumbnails from my "educational experience" set on Flickr because, while there are many things I could say about my educational experience, I think the most important thing is to highlight that my library school education isn't limited to the physical classroom. Yes, my school and the community of faculty, staff, and students there, are important parts of my education (and of my social life, too!).

The picture of the capitol represents how I am able to take advantage of local resources outside of school. I have been fortunate to have two mentors from public libraries in the area and have taken advantage of several continuing education opportunities through the Central Texas Library Association. I am also a member of the Texas Library Association and thanks to two stipends I have been awarded this year, I will be attending the TLA annual conference in Houston this year.

The picture of my office represents how I am able to connect to other students and librarians around the world through my internet connection. I'm subscribed to something like 30 blogs on library topics, I participate in e-mail listservs, and I am taking this course online through the WISE consortium.

Finally, the last picture is of the public library where I work full-time. Being able to apply classroom lessons at work and to relate work experiences in the classroom has been invaluable to me. I feel that the combination of the two has prepared me quite well for my career as a professional librarian.

Check out more pictures of my educational experience here!
Check out my classmates' pictures here!

Google Analytics

A high percentage of visitors to this blog come through Firefox (67.19% of visitors in the last month). The next most commonly used browser is Internet Explorer, which was used by 21.88% of visitors. The number of Firefox users is more than three times as many! A respectable 9.38% of visitors used Safari.

Just under half of the visitors to the blog (43.75%) connected to the internet using cable. The connection speed of another 34.38% of visitors is unknown.

I probably spent way too much time looking at this today--it's fascinating!

wikispaces vs. pbwiki

I have used pbwiki very minimally in the past, but this week's assignment really helped me to feel more confident with it! Previously I had added content to someone else's wiki using the service (in this class, in the 23 Things program, and at work), but creating a wiki, along with my colleague, was really empowering. I found that pbwiki was as easy to use as any word processing program.

I thought that wikispaces seemed just as easy to use at first. And I really liked the sleek interface and pop-up windows. Also, it seemed even easier to add an image to a page in wikispaces than in pbwiki. However, I really got tripped up when I tried to insert a piece of code from Goodreads into my wikispaces wiki. I'd done this on my pbwiki page, so it shouldn't have been a problem, but nothing I tried worked and the help page was not particularly helpful. I think I'll be sticking with pbwiki. After all, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it!"

If you're interested, here's my extremely minimal wikispace wiki: http://rtscils598s09.wikispaces.com/.

Google Docs on Campus

The assignment asks us to make a prediction about the usefulness and acceptance rate of online document sharing tools like Google Docs on college campuses. However, I really don't need to predict anything. I began using Google docs in my very first graduate school course in the fall of 2007 and have used it on most of my collaborative projects since then (which in library school amounts to a lot of projects--we love teamwork!). Professors and classmates are open to and encourage the use of these tools.

I have yet to share a document with a professor of a face-to-face class as I did this week for SCILS598, though. So far, they do still seem to prefer attachments or printed assignments. Still, I think we're moving toward this. In the case of printed assignments, I think we are all becoming more conscious of the amount of paper we use so some people are bound to start looking for alternatives. Google Docs has the advantage over an attachment because there are no concerns about software compatibility, items getting lost in inboxes or accidentally deleted, or any of the other myriad problems that arise with attachments.

The Long Tail

Before I address the issue of the Long Tail and libraries, let me first say that I found the Chris Anderson article extremely interesting and illuminating. (Though I'm still glad we didn't have to read the book for class! I think I got the point quite nicely through the article.) I think he made a particularly interesting point in noting how we, as consumers, don't always know what we want and often equate popularity with quality but are now able, through companies like Netflix and Amazon, able to discover new things. I liked the idea of the Long Tail as something that facilitates discovery.

Which is an excellent segue to libraries, for what are they if not places that facilitate discovery? Perhaps my library is unique, but I already see the Long Tail at work in libraries every day. Similar to the Rhapsody/Britney Spears example in Anderson's article, readers advisory librarians are often leading patrons from a popular item they've enjoyed to a lesser known or less popular item that is similar. For example, you liked Twilight? Maybe you'll also enjoy the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris. If you enjoy those, maybe you'll enjoy a slightly different take on vampires in Interview with a Vampire by Anne Rice. Still interested? Well, why not try the granddaddy of all vampire books, Bram Stoker's Dracula?

I also see my library as a repository for Long Tail items not available at Borders or Barnes & Noble. We carry issues of the local high school's yearbook back to the sixties. We also collect broadly in the area of documentary DVDs mentioned by Anderson because they fit two aspects of the library's mission statement in that they provide both entertainment and educational value. We have a large immigrant population in our area so we also collect more foreign films that you can find at the local Blockbuster. Both the documentaries and foreign films have high circulation rates (the yearbooks are non-circulating items).

Introductions via Bookmarks

I think using Delicious bookmarks as a means of introducing ourselves to classmates and colleagues is a really fun and creative idea. In just the few moments it took me to scan through the bookmarks we've accumulated as a class thus far, I was able to see that I share the following non-academic interests with some of my classmates: Etsy, fantasy football, vegetarian cooking, celebrity gossip, and the Smitten Kitchen blog. Now I know that I may find other sites of interest to me by looking at the Delicious pages of those folks. I also liked having the opportunity to share some of my favorites!

It was challenging for me to think of myself in terms of the Web sites I look at, even though I spend hours a day on the Web and references to things like xkcd or Cute Overload occur regularly in my real-world conversations. And, as with any social software, I really thought through each choice and what it would "say" about me beyond "I like sports." On Facebook and other networking sites, I always refrain from listing favorite books, movies, music, etc. because I know people form opinions based on those things that are very limiting. If I post, for example, that my favorite musician is Yo Yo Ma, people will form a very different opinion of me than if I post that my favorite musician is Justin Timberlake. Does everyone think I'm a total geek now that I linked to Whedonesque?

How we present ourselves is, of course, not a concern that is limited to the virtual world, but it seems like a much larger challenge because so much of the information on social networking sites is not couched in any kind of context. When you make a list of favorites, people make their own assumptions, whereas when your favorites come up in the course of real-life face-to-face conversations an explanation is attached. You can relate a funny story or sentimental memory or something else that gives actual insight into your character more so than the simple fact that you like a certain movie. Facebook can make people seem very one-dimensional.

Delicious vs. Furl

It's strange, but I prefer the idea of Furl to the actual execution. I like that you can rank bookmarks and that there are so many different levels of sharing and that you can add so much metadata to a bookmark (the "clippings" feature, in particular, seems neat). In the end, though, simplicity won out with me (and, it seems, with my classmates and the general masses) and I preferred Delicious. As I said, I like the idea of being able to add so much metadata, but in application I like just clicking the button, adding some tags, and saving. Which, of course, you can do with Furl, but it's just so clean and easy with Delicious.

Goodreads

I just started using Goodreads on February 1st. Of course, I just recently learned that Library Thing is based in Portland, Maine, so I feel somewhat traitorous having chosen against it.

When comparing Library Thing, Shelfari, and Goodreads, I found that I preferred the layout of Goodreads, but the thing that really set it apart was that I simply knew more people who used it than any of the other services. Strangely enough, after just four weeks of use, I can pretty confidently say that was a silly reason because I have not used the social aspect of Goodreads at all. As you might imagine of someone who is studying to become a professional librarian, the majority of my friends and family love to read. Our conversations manage to come around to books just about every time, so I am not really lacking for recommendations or reviews or even just an outlet to discuss books I loved or hated.

The features I do like, though, which it has in common with Shelfari and Library Thing, are the ability to put a widget on my blog that shows the covers of my recently-read books and the ability to assign multiple tags to a book so I can have overlapping shelves, unlike in my physical library. I like that I can keep track of my books by genre, by year read, by whether or not they are in my personal library, etc.

And, since you might be wondering to yourself, "so what does she use it for, if not the social aspect," let me tell you: First and foremost, I am beginning to use it to keep track of my never-ending TBR (to be read) list. Right now, I've only entered 22 of them, but I assure you the number is in the hundreds and currently the list is made up of little slips of paper, scribbles in the margins of notebooks and planners, and an Excel spreadsheet. This list that is all in one place and that I can access from any internet-enabled device is going to be extremely helpful as I continue on my quest to read these hundreds of TBR books.

I also do like to review the books I read, though not, as I have said, for a social purpose. Someone once told me that he carried a little notebook around with him and always wrote down a few words about any movie he saw or book he read so that a) he'd take some time to actually digest and reflect upon it, rather than consuming, forgetting, and moving on and b) he'd actually remember the book or movie years later. The latter reason, in particular, resonated with me, as there are many books I know I've read but struggle to recall the contents of or my reactions to years later. So, I really review books to enrich my own reading experience, although if other people enjoy them, that's great, too.

Library Science vs. Information Studies

I don't really have a particularly strong philosophical standpoint on the issue of whether or not to keep the word "library" in the names of library schools and library degrees. I go to a School of Information; that's what it is now and that's what it was when I applied to graduate programs. The same goes for my degree, which is a Master of Science in Information Studies. Prior to starting graduate school, I was a total outsider to the library world. I had never worked in a library and honestly didn't know quite what to expect from "library school," but, obviously, I was undeterred by the lack of the word "library" in the school's name. I think the name, in the specific case of the University of Texas at Austin, reflects that the school trains not only librarians, but also information architects and archivists and conservators. And yes, in practical application, there does seem to be a divide between those studying "techie" stuff and those studying "library" stuff, so I can see why librarians like myself are feeling left out in the cold. However, there really shouldn't be a divide between the two, in my mind, so we should feel like the term "information professional" applies to us, too. Librarians in this day and age need to be tech-savvy.

My issues with the whole "library" versus "information" are more practical than philosophical. "Information" is such an abstract idea. I am constantly having to explain to people what I study at a School of Information in order to earn my Master of Science in Information Studies. In fact, I often refer to my program as "library school" and tell people I'm studying "library science" to make things easier on myself.

So, what is information? Is it books on the shelf? Is it the bits and bytes in my computer? Is it the arrangement of materials in my DNA that led to my having brown hair and brown eyes? We might all say yes to those questions, but then it gets more complicated. Is the food I just ate information? My body is going to break down the sugars differently from the proteins, so they must contain some kind of information that conveys the difference, right? Is the fact that my phone is pink information? Maybe not in and of itself, but now that I've typed that it's pink, it sure is, right?

My other practical concern is that people seem to be making the change to exclude the word "library" based on wanting to upgrade our image. Until we learn to market ourselves strongly and effectively, until we stop living up to the stereotype that librarians are afraid of technology, until we make our value known outside the profession, librarians are still going to have an image problem. Words won't change that, actions will.

RSS = Information Overload?

Does the use of RSS/RSS aggregators mitigate or aggravate the problem of Information Overload in today's society?

My personal experience with RSS and RSS aggregators has mitigated my information overload problem. Sure, I do still grapple with info overload, as you'll have noticed from my recent posts, but less so than I would without RSS feeds and a Google Reader account. I was checking several Web sites and blogs every day when a colleague said, "why don't you just subscribe to all of those feeds in Google Reader and save yourself some time?" I love that I don't have to check Web sites every day now; if there's something new, I'll know.

I also like that RSS and RSS aggregators help sift through the news for me, which certainly helps prevent IO and saves me time. For example, I can just subscribe to a few select NY Times feeds, rather than going to the NY Times Web site and clicking through several pages to find what I am looking for.

On the other hand, an RSS feed from something like Delicious, let's say, that draws your attention to Web sites you might not have ever heard of otherwise based on tags of your choosing, might aggravate the problem of information overload. Suddenly you are looking at everything tagged library and Texas and it's possible that sifting through all of that does not produce enough useful results to really make it worth the time and energy to do so.

There's also the little fact that RSS itself has led to the production of several RSS management tools like those we've learned about in class (FeedBurner, FeedDigest, etc.). So, indeed, it has increased the information flow in that respect. It's like when you have to start writing a manual about the manual for a copy machine!

I think I'm going to reserve making an overall "aggravate or mitigate" statement when it comes to society at large. Certainly, in terms of bits and bytes, RSS has led to the creation of more information, but I think whether or not it mitigates or aggravates the problem of information overload will vary widely between users.

LibGuides

LibGuides is a "web 2.0 content management system" for libraries that is totally new to me; I've never even heard of it, much less actually visited the site and poked around.

It's basically a way of creating library Web sites that can have loads of features, both in the interface and the back end. It allows libraries to create dynamic Web sites that take advantage of 2.0 tools like blogs and social bookmarking sites (it even has a partnership with Delicious) and integrate those tools seamlessly into the Web site. This allows libraries to increase their resource sharing capabilities, among other things, which benefits librarians and patrons alike.

Some odds 'n' ends re: technology

First, an interesting realization I had this morning that is directly related to our recent study of RSS:

I read this passage in Where the Action Is: The Foundations of Embodied Interaction by Paul Dourish (MIT, 2001)

Traditional textual interaction took place at teletype machines or serial terminals, where information appeared at the bottom of the screen and scrolled up to disappear off the top.

and only realized that it said information appeared at the bottom on the second reading. That makes sense, computer text read from top to bottom, just as a book does. However, I'm so used to having information fed to me through RSS feeds, that I'm used to the most recent information being at the top of the screen. On the first read-through my brain just processed that sentence in such a way that it made it seem that as an interaction progressed, information would disappear from the bottom of the screen.

Next, a link to my other blog:
Anyone Can Be a Blogger: Siftables

Rustic Overtones

Something I am extremely passionate about is my favorite band, Rustic Overtones. They are a rock band from my home-state, Maine.

I first saw Rustic live when I was a sophomore in high school. They were giving a free show on the patio of a local radio station, WCYY. I didn't become an uber-fan until college, though, when I saw them upwards of 20 times. I was at one of their shows in Boston, at the Paradise Rock Club, in 2002 when they announced they were breaking up. I was actually devastated. In 2007, though, my dreams came true and Rustic re-united and put on several shows in Maine right before I moved to Texas. It was so great to get to see them live a few more times (okay, four times nine days) before heading out west.

In case if the concert tally alone doesn't accurately express my passion about them to you, I'll tell you why I realized they were the perfect subject for this "something I'm passionate about" post. I was struggling with thinking of an appropriate title when I looked up and saw a playlist from one of their shows on my bulletin board, then noticed a signed case for their latest CD on my desk and realized I was wearing my Rustic t-shirt. Yeah, I'd say passionate is putting it mildly.

It's always hard for me to describe exactly why I like Rustic. Sometimes taste just is, y'know? Some things, though, that do stand out about their music are the horn line (they've got two saxophonists and a trombonist; as a former brass player myself, I always love a band with a horn line); the lead singer, Dave Gutter's, voice; and the lyrics in songs like "Hardest Way Possible" and "Iron Boots." They also put on one heck of a show; it's pure entertainment for hours!

If you need more convincing to check them out, let me tell you they are also endorsed by Ken Jenkins. Yes, Ken Jenkins the Jeopardy guy. :)

Can you Digg it?

I have a confession to make: Digg is actually a totally new-to-me 2.0 Web site. I have never even visited the site, despite the fact that I see the little "Digg it" chicklet everywhere. I admit, I start to become overwhelmed with all of these 2.0 tools. Every day, I check Facebook, Google Reader, e-mail, etc. I've got a Goodreads account and a Delicious account. Now, for this class, I've added checking the wiki for updates and looking at my Twitter page. Eventually, the tools you use to make information more manageable begin to require a lot of management themselves. So, I just kept ignoring Digg. And, after checking it out, I still don't feel like I was missing out on anything, so I'm going to go back to ignoring it.

That's not to say that Digg doesn't seem like a neat site. I love the whole "by the people, for the people" thing it's got going on. For those of you who may also be new to Digg, it allows people to rate Web sites and news items so users can find the most popular articles about a given topic. Items that receive an exceptional amount of "diggs" appear on the front page. I see now why people include "Digg it" links on their pages, this can really help raise their visibility.

Still, I don't see much use for it in libraries. Sure, it can lead you to "popular" news articles, but popular is relative. It also isn't necessarily an indicator of accuracy or quality. Just because something is of interest to a subsect of the population that uses Digg, doesn't necessarily mean it has widespread appeal.

Google Reader vs. Bloglines

• I notice that Bloglines has a "notifier" option that allows you to choose among several means of notification that there are new posts for you to read. I poked around and I don't think Google Reader has any "notifier" function, much less several means to choose from (on Bloglines these include a Firefox add-on and a cell-phone notification).
• I notice that both have pre-selected recommended subscriptions to help you get started.
• Bloglines "clip blog," where you are able to post a clip from one of your feeds and comment on it caught my attention so I poked around a little on Google Reader and not only do they have the option of sharing posts with friends (though I think these friends must also be on Google) but they also allow you to post a clip to your blog. I'm going to start taking advantage of that!
• As with any Google product, I like the Google Reader links to all of my other Google tools.
• I was actually coming around to Bloglines and thinking to myself "wow, I might prefer something to a Google product" when I clicked on my SCILS folder and that automatically marked every post by every student as read. I couldn't figure out how to mark them as unread and once I clicked out of that screen I could not figure out how to go back and read old posts. That's easy to do with just one click on Google Reader. Now, I'm going to have to go to each student's blog individually to catch up on those posts and know that in the future I can click on just one feed at a time. Annoying.
  

LiveJournal vs. Blogger

I've been using LiveJournal since 2001, I think? Maybe 2002... And I've been using Blogger since 2007. I've made 105 posts in LiveJournal (almost all memes) and 157 posts in Blogger (almost all actual posts), so I guess my preference is clear. Here's my bulleted comparison:

• The number one reason I prefer Blogger to LiveJournal is that I access it through my Google account, so, with one login and password I'm able to access my e-mail, my blogs, my iGoogle page with widgets selected by and useful to me, and my Google Reader page.
• The number two reason I prefer Blogger is also related to the fact that it's a Google product: I love the Google look. The clean, white space. Love it.
• Because I needed to use Blogger help today, one thing I noticed that the services have in common is the community help centers. A lot of the tech support is provided by fellow users. Does that not just epitomize 2.0 technologies? I love it. A lot of time help pages are written by the designers to go along with how they envisioned their product being used. We all know that what a designer intends and what a user actually does often differ.
• One thing in LiveJournal's favor is the ability to create a number of icons (the exact number depends on the status of your account: paid, unpaid, etc.) or avatars. With Blogger, you've got just the one. Obviously, you could just insert a new picture every time, but I like how LJ allows you to frame a post with the "mood" link, an individual icon, and even what music you are listening to.
• Another thing I like about LiveJournal, and the reason I keep using it, is that it's so easy to set varying privacy levels to posts; of course, a drawback is that users must be on LiveJournal to have access to private posts.
• A final plus in the LiveJournal column that also keeps me coming back is the LiveJournal community concept. You can create or join a LiveJournal community around just about any interest you can imagine and anyone who is a member can post, comment, etc. It's really neat.

I know I pointed out more plusses for LiveJournal, but the fact of the matter is I prefer the look and the ease of use of Blogger for my blog.

Blogging Assignment 1: Library Blog Example

It just so happens that one of my favorite libraries, the Georgetown (TX) Public Library, also has one of my favorite library Web sites (look no further than the Peeps-guided library tour to find out why). You can visit the Georgetown library's online branch (terminology stolen from Farkas; I love it) at http://www.georgetowntex.org/ and what you might notice is that the front page is almost entirely populated with feeds from the library's various blogs. Or, better yet, you might not have noticed that at all because the blogs are so well integrated into the site. The fact that the blogs are all there embedded on the front page make the page really dynamic: it's updated all the time! It also makes it easy for people to find news in the area they are interested in: News, Library Happenings, Teen Space @ GPL, etc. Having blogs for different audiences and interests is the way to go; that way people don't get bogged down in information they don't want and start avoiding your site or missing out on info they do want or need.

Hello, SCILS 598!

I'm switching gears ever-so-slightly with this blog. The subject will continue to be 2.0 technologies and libraries. Now, however, rather than tracking my progress with the 23 Things, I'll be tracking my progress in a social software literacy course I'm taking online from Rutgers through the WISE consortium. So, CTLS readers, please feel free to continue reading and welcome to my SCILS598 classmates!

Thing 23: The Wrap-up

I really enjoyed the 23 Things program. Even when learning about a 2.0 tool I'm not likely to use myself, I felt like I was at least becoming more tech savvy and better able to use these tools in the workplace or to help patrons use them when necessary.

One of the wrap-up questions on the CTLS Web site asks whether or not participants would take part in similar discovery programs if CTLS offered them. I'm a solid "yes" on that one. One of the things I liked the most about the 23 Things program was how it was both self-directed, yet, through the blog comment functions, also interactive. I could go at my own pace, didn't have to feel self-conscious when encountering something completely new to me, and could still read, write, comment on, or read comments about the activities on my blog and others'. I also liked that the self-directed nature of the program allowed me to branch off and pursue topics of particular interested to me, even when they weren't strictly part of the 23 Things.

Thanks, Kam, and the rest of the folks at CTLS! This was a great learning experience and it was fun, too. You can't beat that.

Thing 22: LibriVox Rocks!

Despite what you might think having read my earlier post about my feelings toward podcasts and talk radio, I actually love audiobooks. One of the biggest lifestyle changes I experienced when moving to Texas was a huge increase in the amount of time I spend in the car (in fact, in Boston I didn't own a car). Let me tell you, that one is not in the "pros" column when it comes to comparing Boston to Austin. I hate driving. I hate spending so much time in my car every day. But, audiobooks help make that time much more bearable.

I think LibriVox is especially great because it's volunteer-driven. I love that the books available on LibriVox are there simply because someone enjoyed them enough to take the time to record and share them with the rest of us. I also love the huge selection. I suppose if I'd ever thought about it, I would've realized that so many great classics are now in the public domain. I hadn't thought about it, though, so browsing LibriVox's catalog was a very pleasant surprise.

Thing 21: Pod People

I checked out Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo's film reviews on BBC Radio's 5 Live Web site. Film reviews are something I rely heavily on in my work because I am the DVD selector for my library. I have to say, I wasn't too into it. That's been my reaction to just about every podcast I've ever listened to. The good news is it's not them, it's me. I definitely think podcasts have many uses that are applicable to the day-to-day operations of libraries, I just am the type of user that prefers written information. I don't like to watch television news broadcasts and I generally don't like talk radio and the exceptions to these rules almost always involve sports broadcasting.